By the end of the school year, all students should be able to:
■ Read, write, and identify percents less than 1 percent (such as 1/2 of a percent, or 0.005) and more than 100 percent (such as 230 percent, or 2.30).
■ Solve problems that involve percents. For example, compute sales tax, simple interest, sale price, commissions, or tips.
■ Identify different pairs of angles: vertical angles (angles that are opposite each other where two lines intersect), supplementary angles (two angles that total 180 degrees), and complementary angles (two angles that total 90 degrees or a right angle).
■ Identify the angle pairs that occur when two parallel lines are intersected by a third line.
■ Determine the slope of a line—the steepness of a line on a graph, defined by the ratio of changes in vertical and horizontal distances between two points.
■ Solve equations and proportions to convert customary measurements to their metric equivalents. For example, 2 miles x 1.6 kilometers/mile = 3.2 kilometers.
■ Convert temperatures from Fahrenheit to Celsius and vice versa, C = 5/9(F – 32).
■ Add and subtract polynomials (expressions that contain one or more variables, such as x and y, and constants, such as whole numbers) and use only addition, subtraction, multiplication, and constant positive whole number exponents. For example, 2x2 + 3x + 4 is a polynomial.
■ Factor algebraic expressions. For example: x2+3x+2 = (x+2) (x+1).
■ Use mathematics to show and understand physical phenomena (such as constructing a scale model of your home), social phenomena (such as creating a budget for a summer vacation), and mathematical phenomena (such as graphing algebraic equations and then describing and contrasting the graph lines).
Learning at Home
Help your child make smart money choices. Talk about budgeting, planning how to spend limited resources, earning money, and strategies for saving for future wants and needs. Talk about the cost of credit and how tools like a checking account and a credit card can be both helpful and costly.
Mathworld Classroom offers clear definitions and demonstrations of concepts in pre-algebra, algebra, geometry, and other math disciplines on the Web at mathworld.wolfram.com/classroom.
Remind your child of all the jobs that involve mathematics—including more obvious careers, such as accountant and rocket scientist, as well as not-so-obvious choices, such as psychologist and racehorse trainer. Help your child find opportunities to explore those interests.
“On-Lion” for Kids, the New York Public Library’s Web site for young people, has great math and science games and explorations at kids.nypl.org/science/math.cfm, including homework help and Q&As on middle school math concepts and problems.